Duran Duran Wins Libel Suit Against British Paper

The seminal ’80s MTV act Duran Duran has won a libel suit against the British newspaper “The Sun” over an article that claimed the band was paying people to pose as fans.

Last Thursday, a London High Court awarded the band — currently composed of singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, and guitarist Warren Cuccurullo — unspecified damages for the July 1998 story that appeared in “The Sun.” The High Court ruled that the article, which suggested that the band “had reached an all-time low” by paying passerbys £30 to act as Duran Duran fans for a U.K. TV film, was indeed damaging to the band. Solicitors for the newspaper also agreed to absorb all legal costs of the band’s suit. The piece, which appeared in the paper’s “Bizarre” column under the header, “Simon Le Gone fans are paid £30 to cheer on Duran Duran,” claimed that the pay-out came during the making of “Hunting Venus,” an ITV production about a fictitious ’80s act that reforms in the ’90s. “Hunting
Venus,” which starred Neil Morrissey and Martin Clunes, was broadcast in the U.K. back in March and featured a cameo appearance from Simon Le Bon. During the course of the legal proceedings, the members of Duran Duran claimed that the article hurt the group’s ability to work on and promote a new album, “Hallucinatin’ Elvis,” which it hoped to have out by the end of the year.